While the health care battle continues and we await what Barack Obama will finally indicate as to what he wants for health insurance reform, the Obama Administration should be very worried about people unable to find a job. Also, folks who have a job but hours have been sliced, which is boomeranging into the housing market. The record foreclosures now are PRIME MORTGAGES, not SUBPRIME.

If we want to talk the recession is over, tell that to someone else who is buying it. Most Americans don't feel any recession is over and for the jobless that sell is a real empty vacuum.

Employers kept Americans’ working hours near a record low in August, signaling that economic growth is poised to reward companies with added profits while postponing any recovery in the job market.

The average workweek held at 33.1 hours, six minutes from the 33 hours in June that was the lowest since records began in 1964, the Labor Department said yesterday. The report also showed that while payrolls fell by the least since August 2008, the unemployment rate rose to a 26-year high of 9.7 percent.

The preconditions for gains in payrolls, including giving the army of part-timers longer hours and taking on additional temporary employees, weren’t met last month. At the same time, with economic growth forecast to resume this quarter, the figures set the stage for a surge in worker productivity and drop in labor costs that will stoke corporate profits.

“It’s disappointing and it tells us that we are not quite there yet,” said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York who used to work at the Federal Reserve. “It’s great for business and terrible for households” for coming months, Feroli said. read more here....

Florida GOP head Jim Greer got his ASS handed on a platter. This is ridiculous about the President addressing school children. And this Jim Greer, head of the GOP in Florida is a racist. Lastly, George H.W. Bush addressed school children during his tenor and did we get this GOP bullshit then? crickets.

Not good for the Obama Administration, but the other good news is that job loss was only 216,000. What is alarming is that underemployment is 16.8% and that should really worry the Obama Administration.

As long as there are no jobs or new job growth, this will continue to be a thorn in the Obama Administration's side.

The unemployment rate jumped to 9.7 percent in August, the highest since June 1983, as employers reduced a net total of 216,000 jobs.

The level of job cuts is less than July's upwardly revised total of 276,000 and is the lowest in a year. Analysts expected the unemployment rate to rise to 9.5 percent from July's 9.4 percent, and job reductions to total 225,000.

If laid-off workers who have settled for part-time work or have given up looking for new jobs are included, the so-called underemployment rate reached 16.8 percent, the highest on records dating from 1994.

The nation needs to see a different President Obama next Wednesday when he addresses a joint session of Congress.

His laid-back attempt to take the high road just isn't working.

It was all very noble and everything to try to be bipartisan. It was most excellently un-Bush-like to actually ask Congress to try its hand at legislating. It was admirably high-minded to attempt conciliation, to adopt a professorial role, and stay at 30,000 feet.

But no more. The Republican Party and the national discourse have been hijacked by unhinged zealots. The Democratic congressional leadership has shown itself to be incoherent, incapable and corrupted. So for Obama, it's either time to fight back or give up.

Obama could, I guess, back off on everything remotely controversial in his health care proposal, throw the public option and universal coverage and end-of-life counseling overboard, and try to get everyone to find common ground. But even that wouldn't appease his critics. They won't stop fighting just because he does. Their goal is for Obama to lose.

Alternately, Obama could commit himself to some specifics, call out his critics, and remind people why all this is so damned important.

Here's one thing he could say: I'm not going to chase after the crazies on the right anymore. I cannot do business with these people, try as I may. I reach out and they accuse me of being a socialist who wants to pull the plug on grandma. read more here....

President Obama needs to knock this out of the park, but will he? Are we going to hear more of bipartisanship? Which is NOT WORKING. He needs to have a fire in his belly and talk plainly to the American Public. Because right now, everyone is suspect of what will happen but more importantly, what he stands for.

Van Jones is Obama's Green Jobs adviser. The Glenn Beck folks have been going after him because he was associated with Color of Change, an organization which has been successful in having advertisments withdrawn from Beck's show after he called the President a 'racist'.

President Obama's "green jobs" adviser could become a mounting liability for the Obama administration, as the latest revelation about Van Jones shows his belief that the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks may have been an inside job.

Jones joined the "9/11 truther" movement by signing a statement in 2004 calling for then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and others to launch an investigation into evidence that suggests "people within the current administration may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war."

The statement asked a series of critical questions hinting at Bush administration involvement in the attacks and called for "deeper inquiry." It was also signed by former Rep. Cynthia McKinney and Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans.

The discovery comes after Jones had to apologize Wednesday night for "offensive words" he uttered in February when he called Republicans "assholes." He said the remarks "do not reflect the views of this administration" and its bipartisan aims.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Yes, Levi is not only getting PAID but putting all the trashy dirt out in the street on Sarah Palin. Is anyone surprised? Please, we knew what she was all about when she hit the campaign trail. And she is doing it in style by making millions of dollars and soon to leave Alaska for GOOD. Once you taste the lower 48, Alaska just ain't that great. And Sarah has shown her true colors on THAT ONE.

The Palin house was much different from what many people expect of a normal family, even before she was nominated for vice president. There wasn’t much parenting in that house. Sarah doesn’t cook, Todd doesn’t cook—the kids would do it all themselves: cook, clean, do the laundry, and get ready for school. Most of the time Bristol would help her youngest sister with her homework, and I’d barbecue chicken or steak on the grill.

[snip]

Sarah told me she had a great idea: we would keep it a secret—nobody would know that Bristol was pregnant. She told me that once Bristol had the baby she and Todd would adopt him. That way, she said, Bristol and I didn’t have to worry about anything. Sarah kept mentioning this plan. She was nagging—she wouldn’t give up. She would say, “So, are you gonna let me adopt him?” We both kept telling her we were definitely not going to let her adopt the baby. I think Sarah wanted to make Bristol look good, and she didn’t want people to know that her 17-year-old daughter was going to have a kid.

[snip]

Sarah was sad for a while. She walked around the house pouting. I had assumed she was going to go back to her job as governor, but a week or two after she got back she started talking about how nice it would be to quit and write a book or do a show and make “triple the money.” It was, to her, “not as hard.” She would blatantly say, “I want to just take this money and quit being governor.” She started to say it frequently, but she didn’t know how to do it. When she came home from work, it seemed like she was more and more stressed out.

Because labor has already given a shot across the bow, no public option, no boots on the ground for any Democrat that votes against it.

Is the Obama White House waking up from a long month's sleep? We will see.

President Barack Obama will unveil a retooled campaign for his health care overhaul on Labor Day at a massive union picnic in Cincinnati.

Obama will attend the AFL-CIO’s annual Labor Day shindig at Coney Island, an old amusement park on the Ohio River, accompanied by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka.

No word yet on content, but the president’s supporting cast could offer a clue. Last month, Trumka warned Democrats that union forces would sit out the next election if they passed a health plan that did not include the so-called public option, a government-run insurance plan that would compete with private insurers.

On health care, Obama’s willingness to forgo the public option is sure to anger his party’s liberal base. But some administration officials welcome a showdown with liberal lawmakers if they argue they would rather have no health care law than an incremental one. The confrontation would allow Obama to show he is willing to stare down his own party to get things done.

I am just going to say this, I don't know what President Obama will do, but with the personnel in his administration, killing the public option will not make any of them cry. And I won't be surprised if this happens. This is about getting the independents back and taking a chance that whatever anyone has to say on the left doesn't matter, at this time. The strategy is that we will be there regardless. That is the plan from how I see it. And from TPM about the public option:

That means that Obama will, again, not be insisting on a public option--a development (or a non-development) that's sure to give his progressive base some heartburn.

Yes, we do have heartburn over what we don't know because of the quasi-vagueness from the White House. But personally, I think it is wrong to gut the public option, if it comes to that. Barack Obama and the Democrats falling poll numbers is their fault, not ours. Their lack of explanation in plain speak to the American Public is their fault. Their lack of clarity and cohesiveness is their fault. Their vagueness of what this health care bill will be is their fault. Their lack of response during the month of August is their fault. Their lack of organizing until the last minute is their fault. Yes, it is their fault. We did what we could do, but in the end it is their fault for not having a bill to promote, explain, and guarantee to the American Public. Yes, their fault. Again, I state this because we, us, the voters or supporters did all we could. We went to town hall meetings, we contacted our representatives, we blogged, we did everything but in the end we don't have that big bully pulpit that the President of the United States has, which is finally going to be use next week. And he did do 3 town hall meetings, but did he say anything? Sure, he stated that he wants a public option, but will that be what we get? Not in this statement, again unclarity and uncertainty. Sure, some will say "it's Politico, unnamed sources", yes it is but we all are smart here, you don't float this out there unless there is a reason. And how is one to keep an open mind when you are confronted with changes about health care daily?

“We have been saying all along that the most important part of this debate is not the public option, but rather ensuring choice and competition,” an aide said. “There are lots of different ways to get there.”

The timing, format, venue and content of Obama's presentation are still being debated in the West Wing. Aides have discussed whether to stick to broad principles, or to send specific legislative language to Capitol Hill. Some hybrid is likely, the officials said.

Well, I don't know about you but for me, if we don't have a viable public option what will we have? I see the insurance companies, as usual, benefiting from this in the end. If we see mandatory mandates, that means that insurance companies will benefit. Sure, we will see the pre-existing condition eliminated; it will be because that is not a win-win for the insurance company. The industry will cede that point, but not the public option. And we saw that for the month of August as we got hammered by the GOP operative. Hey, I give them thumbs up; they were able to confuse the shit out of the American Public to the point that NO ONE understands what a public option is? And whose fault is that? Sure some will say the media, but we already have been through this show and know the media would never be an honest broker. The sheer fact is that we were not organized, prepared and on the same page throughout the party for what health care reform meant to all of us, for that we lost this battle. And for all of us to remember, Obama spoke continuously on lowering prescription drug costs, only to cut a deal with Big PhRma, which means that the government is not allowed to negotiate overseas for cheaper prescription medication prices. That right there got me angry. Why? Because this is just what the Bush Administration did with Medicare D and Obama talked about this continuously, only to turn around and do a sweetheart deal in the heat of the night. Sad, but true.

If this administration wants to stare me down, go ahead. In the meantime, remove me from your DNC, DCCC, DSCC and Obama databases. Don't expect me to pound on doors, make phone calls, talk to neighbors, etc. Just don't expect me to do it. All you will get from me is a vote, because I am a Democrat, but anything else, forget it. I am not going to play the stare down game, just so the Obama Administration can look tough over its own base. I am not going to do it. I will just remove myself from their equation and let them get folks fired up and ready to go. I am sure they can do it; they have all the smart people in the White House that got them to 50% polling numbers and sliding. So, let them figure it out.

Lastly, Barack Obama campaigned for change, but more importantly health care reform was a passion of his during the campaign. He invoked his dying mother in this debate and her argument with the insurance companies not treating her until her dying days. He of all people should know how important this is to millions of Americans. The public option is a choice, not a demand, but this White House has not promoted or sold it to the public as they should have. What happened is that the whole month of August was ceded to the other side and now everything is reactionary.

I await President Obama's speech next week and I hope I am satisfied. I already knew with a clear head that I would not like everything coming from this White House, but the reality is much of his agenda, thus far has been whittled away. But again, who am I to talk, I am not one of the smart people inside the bubble.

I don't care who you are, in the end after listening to these teabaggers, birthers, right winged extremists, you can not help but wonder do they really want the President killed. All this white noise out here is not good for this country and just rev up the racists and bigots in this country. Case and point, all these people have grabbed either Barack Obama is not a citizen to healthcare to hide behind these excuses to exude how they really feel and it is plainly racist. Saw this on Keith last night and sadly, this is how I feel in the back of my mind. Keith with Dan Savage.

Damn, it took a whole month, dropping of poll numbers, vagueness, confusion, miscommunication and out right lies for President Obama to finally say what he wants in the health care bill.

I want to get excited, but right now I am non-chalant. I want health care reform and know that it is needed but I expected the President and Democrats to perform, better yet, EXPLAIN to the American Public why this issue is crucial and needed. That has not happened.

I am glad that President Obama is finally saying something, but this is not how you communicate to the American Public about an issue that is crucial and dear to you, as President Obama has repeated during the campaign.

Well, we ceded the whole month of August to the GOP and their operatives. Hats off, they did a hell of a job in confusing the whole country and scaring the elderly to death. Yes, the elderly in recent polling do not trust Obama's health care reform, probably because they as me don't know what he wants.

And the public option? Sounds like a bunch of mumbo, jumbo to me, in other words he is not totally committed to it (from what I read) and don't expect to hear that absolute from him.

He will insist upon a mechanism to cut costs and increase competition among insurance companies -- and perhaps will even specify a percentage rate -- and he will say that his preferred mechanism remains a government-subsidized public health insurance option, but he will remain agnostic about whether the plan must include a robust public option. Officials won't say whether the president intends to endorse a specific "trigger" mechanism if the competition mechanism fails, but they say he will make it clear that the final bill must contain language that increases competition.

What does that mean? I really hope President Obama comes out in lay man's speak about what he wants in the health care reform bill, not that Washington, D.C., professorial speak. If he does, the regular joes and josettas will walk on by and not pay attention.

Purely in political terms, if the White House's goal is to generate enthusiasm in the Democratic base, that sort of approach won't cut it. If they want to excite the base -- and as kos showed earlier, they need to -- then they will need to come out more strongly for a public option, because it is the only mechanism that anybody has proposed that will meet his stated objectives.

Yes, if President Obama comes out with that approach, many will just WALK ON BY. I don't know what is wrong with this White House, are the Obama Adminstration so caught up in D.C. and the bubble that they don't get it? Continuing like this will not help much.

But who am I? I am just an activist that worked her ass off for this campaign to see this shit happen.

Look, getting Osama bin Laden would be GREAT, but it has not happened under George W. Bush and who knows if it will happen under Barack Obama. One thing is crystal clear, with the economy in a free fall, folks out of jobs at record clip, who cares about Afghanistan? I don't mean to be harsh, but really this shit has been going on for 8 years. We don't have the manpower, we have not fired Blackwater or Halliburton's militia force because as wrong as they are, we need them. This country has spent billions on a bullshit war in Iraq with not a THING TO SHOW FOR IT, and we are supposed to continue to spend the money like this in Afghanistan?

More than anything, this war will cripple Barack Obama, in my opinion. The public is not feelin' anything with war attached, though it was Bush's problem towards the end of his term, it was Obama's decision to continue on in Afghanistan.

When will all of this end? And what about the money we are spending daily, weekly, monthly, yearly?

Since ground-breaking and initial tilling in March, we've been documenting the progress of the first garden on White House grounds since Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden during World War II. This new garden was planted with the help of local elementary school children and has yielded a constant supply fresh produce for the First Family and White House events. Hear and see the story of the garden first-hand from First Lady Michelle Obama and White House chef Sam Kass.

Angelina Jolie's father is a piece of work. Oh, her father is Jon Voight, another right winged extremist. It is misinformation like this, out there, that is just mind boggling, especially on health care. And for the record, Jon Voight is a damn LIAR.

Well, here we go with what Ted Kennedy would do. Coming from the now senior senator from Massachuesetts.

"Here's what Teddy would do. He'd say: 'I'm going to fight the fight, and if and when we get to the point that we can't get there, we'll see whether or not we can do enough to make good happen out of this. And you can't make that measurement today," Senator John Kerry, a Democrat, said on ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulos.

[snip]

Kerry said Kennedy would fight for the public option and "do everything in his power to get it," but "if he didn't see the ability ... to get it done, he would not throw the baby out with the bathwater."

Great, we have a senior member of the senate just telling the GOP that "in the end"; we will negotiate away the public option.

President Obama and the Democrats have done a terrible communication and pr job in letting the public know exactly what will be involved in the health care bill. Mainly, for the Democratic Congress to just leave in August with no bill and no certainty of what will be in the bill, while President Obama is vague in what EXACTLY he wants in the bill gives an opening to your opponent to paint your bill, vision to what we have seen in the press. Until President Obama lets the public know what is acceptable in the bill and what is not, we are going to continue to see the chaos out there.

I want to commend OFA, the extension of the Obama Campaign, but I just believe that the Obama White House and Democratic Congress was too late leaving the gate. Again, this was a continued issue with Obama when he was running for President, the same slow motion movement when his house was on fire. Obama never moved until his (as a friend told me) eyebrows were on fire. Well, Obama's eyebrows are on fire while he is sitting up in the Oval Office. It will be up to President Obama to draw that line in the sand for health care and stand on it. As he is sitting in his bubble the masses, especially many which supported him are turning very sour for lack of movement and substance on the health care fight from the President. That is what miscommunication does, create confusion, this is the Democrats fault.

Again, when you don't know what is in a plan, what EXACTLY the President wants in the bill, how can anyone defend a health care bill? Sure, we all want health care reform and that is across the board, but until you know WHAT is in the bill then the lying and chaos that the right winged extremists and Republicans have caused will continue. And the President's and Democratic Congress numbers will continue to slip.

President Obama and Democrats in Congress we are waiting for you to be on the SAME PAGE.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

The announcement of the pending CIA torture investigations by AG Eric Holder, SHOULD WORRY DICK CHENEY. Why? Because as Former President George W. Bush was leaving office, all his dirty shit was unraveling. In fact, Bush could not wait for the "klieg lights" to be dim on him for good, his words.

Just as we found out about the lies of the Bush Administration to take this country to Iraq for a War that was of choice, not necessity, it is important that we know everything and clean it up. Why? Because this country, the United States of America is bigger and better than what we, its citizens saw and let transpire. By the time George W. Bush was to leave office, there was barely a country he could go to. The disdain of the Bush Administration and its policy of the Iraq War were so negative, he would have been booed to high heaven. As he was the last time in Europe and as we witnessed an Iraqi journalist throwing shoes at President Bush, which is to signify total disdain and disrespect.

George W. Bush may have ended up signing off on a lot of things he did not totally know about or just cared not to, but in the end, he will be on the hot seat, too. But, Dick Cheney has already been implicated on knowing and dealing the thing called "torture". Now, out of office and writing a book, anytime you bring up the word "investigation" he puts his ass on television in a flash to denounce the Obama Administration and call it "partisan or political", when in fact Barack Obama does not want to go down this road, this call is purely from the Justice Department. See, when you follow the LAW and don't politicize every department, let each department act independently of the White House, as Justice is supposed to, you end up with an investigation.

So, today Dick Cheney released his bogus daughter, Lynn Cheney to This Week with George Stephanopoulos, but there was a seasoned journalist on the panel by the name of Sam Donaldson and he was having none of her bullshit nonsense of tap dancing around questions and straight up not answering them. View the whole exchange, here. And the shorter version is below:

I am from Illinois, a blue state with the City of Chicago within it, a large populous state. Yet, while the White House WAITS on the Senate Finance Committee; large populous states have no representation of the committee. There are six individuals who are trying to pound out an agreement, yet all come from extremely small states and represents none of the majority of Americans. Note, we have had other bills come out of committee with the public option attached, but the bipartisanship of the White House has been a wait and see, as what comes out of the Baucus Committee.

Now the same sort of damaging retreat may be happening in the Senate Finance Committee. Three committees in the House and one in the Senate have used their Democratic majorities to approve liberal health reform bills. The only bipartisan negotiations are between a rump group of three Democrats and three Republicans on the Finance Committee who hail from largely rural states with small populations, namely Iowa, Maine, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wyoming. Somehow this small, unrepresentative group has emerged as the focal point for bipartisan health care reform.

Bipartisan health care. No one is asleep here; do we actually believe that the Republicans will vote ANYTHING for Obama? When you have the likes of Grassley and Enzi, who are on this committee continuing to destroy any hope of bipartisanship, yet the White House forges along, but why? Is it for Independent votes? If that is the case, they are bleeding this group, since the Democratic Party has been all over the map in the messaging of health care and this message has clearly been yanked from the Democrats. The reality now in the Obama White House is that none of these Republicans were EVER going to be an honest broker, not for any of Barack Obama's agenda. At this time the Republicans only care about political points with hopes of recapturing the congress and hopefully the White House, so helping out President Obama is very LOW on their totem pole.

In recent weeks, it has become inescapably clear that Republicans are unlikely to vote for substantial reform this year. Many seem bent on scuttling President Obama’s signature domestic issue no matter the cost. As Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, so infamously put it: “If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”

As we are still trying for the "bipartisanship lovey-dovey bill", the Republicans are staying on course to kill ANY health care reform bill, in the process making outrageous demands for their support EVEN THOUGH we have majorities in the House and Senate. The way things are going, you would think it is the Republicans in charge and not the Democrats.

In Salt Lake City today, Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT) held a fundraiser with former Bush adviser Karl Rove, where Rove declared that “Republicans will be defined this year by their effort to block Democrats’ efforts for health care reform.” “This year is going to be defined by Republicans and conservatives by what we oppose,” said Rove. After Rove praised Bennett’s health care plan, Bennett said that he agreed with Rove’s goal of killing health care reform:

Rove said that he supports Bennett’s work on the Healthy Americans Act - the health care bill Bennett is co-sponsoring with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon - although he said it’s “not exactly the bill that you or I would like each and every section.” Bennett said his bill is not a negotiating tool on health care, but it will be there as an alternative after Democratic reforms are blocked. “The No. 1 assignment in 2009 is to kill Obamacare,” Bennett said.

With lovey-dovey friends like these, no wonder health care is in disarray.

No one can rule out that the health care debacle or debate has hurt Obama and Democrats across the board, but I firmly believe once a health care package (with a public option) is passed by Democrats (let's be real the Republicans are not voting for ANYTHING) then we can rebound in the polling numbers. I also believe that once President Obama explains in clear lay-man speak, not that Washington, D.C. mumbo jumbo, but relay to the American Public why health care reform is not only important but what it means for THEM, we can win this battle. But, if we continue to deal with the Republican Party, which is fruitless, worthless and a waste of time, in my opinion, the public option could be a compromise if the Obama White House is hell bent on a bipartisan bill. Even though, a government run public option is what the public wants and demands, it could easily be dealt away:

The six have been working hard to reach agreement, but the concessions demanded by Republicans will most likely make the reform effort weaker and smaller. They could, for example, reduce the scale of the program and the subsidies for low-income people; drop the idea of a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers; and eliminate a requirement that employers offer coverage to their workers or pay a penalty.

Even if the group reaches an agreement, which is by no means certain, its compromise is unlikely to win support from a Republican Party that seems bent on delay. Leading Senate Republicans have seen little in the emerging compromise that they are willing to support.

Two of the Republicans working on the compromise — Charles Grassley of Iowa and Michael Enzi of Wyoming — have said they would not vote for a bill that could not win broad support, which Mr. Enzi defined as 75 to 80 senators, implying that roughly half of the Senate’s Republicans must sign on. That is unlikely — no matter how good or bipartisan or middle-of-the-road any bill may be.

I hope President Obama and his family had a very restful vacation, even though the death of our great leader of the senate, Ted Kennedy, hurts, I am hoping that it is our former Lion of the Senate, while in his death will give some backbone or steel spine to the Democrats to forge this ahead and get on with it.

We need health care reform, desperately, but we don't need what the Republicans are trying to dish up. The Democratic Party is the leaders, majority of the congress and White House, it is time to show this leadership and get on with it.

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